Friday round-up

Posted Fri, January 21st, 2011 12:25 pm by Kali Borkoski

One year after the Court's decision in Citizens United, David Bossie (president of Citizens United) and Theodore Olson (who argued the case for the group) have an op-ed in the Washington Post in which they contend that, "thanks to" the decision, we may celebrate that the First Amendment confirms what our forefathers fought for: "the freedom to think for ourselves.'" At ASCblog, Fred Wertheimer has a different take on the decision, which he describes as "a disastrous decision that initiated a dangerous sea change in American politics." Also at ACSblog, Richard Hasen opines that "Justice Kennedy’s utopian information-flowing vision of the U.S. campaign finance system is now no more than a dream."

Also in the news is the recent effort by Common Cause to have the Department of Justice investigate whether Justices Scalia and Thomas should have recused themselves from the Citizens United decision in light of their alleged ties to Koch Industries, which Common Cause describes as "a major political player that directly benefited from the Citizens United decision." Ben Smith at Politico reports that Common Cause may be "relying on a flawed timeline"; the USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The BLT, Concurring Opinions, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the Political Hotsheet of CBS News, and The Hill blog also have coverage.

Joining the nearly unanimous predictions that the government will prevail in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc., which was argued on Wednesday and which Amanda covered in yesterday's round-up, Tony Mauro "“ writing for the First Amendment Center "“ agrees that the Justices are "unlikely to rule for corporations-as-persons in the FOIA context."

Michael Doyle at the Sacramento Bee briefly summarizes the facts of the case in Harrington v. Richter, which was decided earlier on Wednesday.

At Bloomberg, Greg Stohr discusses whether Chief Justice John Roberts will attend the President's State of the Union Address next week, as well as the possible implications if he declines to attend.

Although the Supreme Court was in recess yesterday, Justice Kagan was at D.C. Superior Court yesterday for jury duty. The Justice was apparently not selected to sit on a jury, nor did she collect her five-dollar juror fee. Keith Alexander of the Washington Post's Crime Scene blog, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, and ABC News all have coverage.

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. ComerThe Missouri Department of Natural Resources' express policy of denying grants to any applicant owned or controlled by a church, sect or other religious entity violated the rights of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc., under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment by denying the church an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status.

Hernández v. Mesa(1) A Bivens remedy is not available when there are "special factors counselling hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress," and the court recently clarified in Ziglar v. Abbasi what constitutes a special factor counselling hesitation; the court of appeals should consider how the reasoning and analysis in Ziglar bear on the question whether the parents of a victim shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent may recover damages for his death; (2) It would be imprudent for the Supreme Court to decide Jesus Hernandez’s Fourth Amendment claim when, in light of the intervening guidance provided in Abbasi, doing so may be unnecessary to resolve this particular case; and (3) with respect to Hernandez’s Fifth Amendment claim, because it is undisputed that the victim's nationality and the extent of his ties to the United States were unknown to the agent at the time of the shooting, the en banc court of appeals erred in granting qualified immunity based on those facts.

Conference of September 25, 2017

Collins v. Virginia Whether the Fourth Amendment's automobile exception permits a police officer, uninvited and without a warrant, to enter private property, approach a house and search a vehicle parked a few feet from the house.

Butka v. Sessions Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit erred in this case by holding that it had no jurisdiction to review the denial of a motion to reopen by the Board of Immigration Appeals, where the review sought was limited to assessing the legal framework upon which the sua sponte request was made.

National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra Whether the free speech clause or the free exercise clause of the First Amendment prohibits California from compelling licensed pro-life centers to post information on how to obtain a state-funded abortion and from compelling unlicensed pro-life centers to disseminate a disclaimer to clients on site and in any print and digital advertising.